Field of the Invention
This invention relates to treats for pets and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for treats designed to hide or otherwise contain tablets, pills, capsules, and the like administered as medicine or other supplements to pets.
Background
The medicine of pets and other livestock takes on many of the aspects of medicine administered to human beings. However, several major distinctions are problematic. For example, individual people have a will. Personal will may often override preference or desires and accept, receive, or otherwise take the administration of medicines as directed by a physician, knowing the importance thereof. Animals are not so inclined, if they do not like the taste or smell of an object, thing, or substance. They will typically not take it into their mouths, or will discharge it immediately upon sensing the taste, texture, or nature thereof.
Medicine for humans tends to be quite expensive, and supported by the importance of it to human beings. The medical treatment of livestock must necessarily be less expensive. In the case of agricultural livestock, the costs must be appropriate to the value of the animal. All costs of care are closely controlled.
Medicine administered to pets and other livestock suffers from certain problems not common with human patients. For example, human patients often warrant the extra expense of highly developed medicines. Moreover, if human life and health are at stake, typically no reasonable expense is spared. On the other hand, livestock may be commercial animals, in which medical treatment and medicines substances must be cost effective in view of the economic value of the animal treated.
Of course, it may go without saying that some people treat their pets almost as members of the family. Therefore, the line between the cost for treating people, that for pets and the cost for treating agricultural animals may be somewhat blurred economically. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the attempts by marketers to encourage pet owners to treat the pets as human members of the family, medicines for pets do not typically warrant the same cost.
However, a more serious difference is the effect of will and reason on the behaviors of the “patients.” A human patient, at least an adult, can reason and understand the importance of taking medicine. Accordingly, taste is not as important to an adult as it may be to a child or an animal. On the other hand, animals will simply refuse to accept or receive administered medicines that have an unacceptable flavor, smell, texture, or the like. Thus, animals must either be persuaded in the case of capsules disguised or flavored to alter their appearance or taste. Likewise, it is not uncommon for pet owners to hide a capsule, tablet, or other medicine in a chunk of meat, a glob of peanut butter, or to otherwise mask its smell and taste. This results in messy preparation and regular cleanup duties, of smelly substances that still cling to hands and work spaces.
Certain products exist, but typically are somewhat expensive, do not have clean packaging, soil hands of a pet owner, do not seal up and completely obscure taste, visibility, or smell, or some combination thereof, and so forth. Meanwhile, typical compositions that are calculated to hide medicines leave residues on counters, on hands, clothing, and so forth. Thus, keeping clothing clean, washing hands repeatedly, cleaning up countertops, and so forth all take time, attention, and may accidentally be missed until it is too late and the residues have been spread.
Thus, it would be an advance in the art to provide something that is simpler, less messy, more secure, and more certain to fully hide visually and obscure both taste and smell. It would be an advance in the art to provide a system and method for making, using, and administering a cover or wrap that obscures the taste, visual image, and smell consistently for typical medicines formed as tablets, capsules, or the like.